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Disaster mayors meet Premier

MARK COLVIN: In Queensland, the mayors of disaster hit areas are meeting the Premier in Brisbane to discuss reconstruction efforts. They represent areas affected by flood in December and January, including Rockhampton and the Lockyer Valley, and those hit by the cyclone in north Queensland.

As well as discussing the Reconstruction Authority, they'll be appealling for it to be given new funds rather than potentially depleting the pool for council road repairs.

The Mayor of the Cassowary Coast region, Bill Shannon, told Annie Guest that he wanted to ensure that the towns around Tully and Cardwell were not short-changed.

BILL SHANNON: The extent of the damage across literally the whole of our region is just enormous. The number of roads that are completely stripped along the beachfront of all their surface, wash-outs just everywhere, it's unquestionably hundreds of millions.

ANNIE GUEST: How much of the costs would you expect to be covered by state and federal assistance and grant money and how much would have to be stumped up by your ratepayers?

BILL SHANNON: Okay. That's a very good question because we've now got a new state Reconstruction Authority and we pay up to a threshold in terms of every event. I think it's in the order of hundreds and thousands. And then beyond that, the state and federal government contribute to the restoration of community assets and there will be a substantial claim and my concern is that the Reconstruction Authority needs to be separately funded.

It is very important that local government still gets to receive the full amount of funding that exists in the present arrangements. So one of the things I've been saying this afternoon is ensuring that the Reconstruction Authority has a separate source of funds.

ANNIE GUEST: Are you quite nervous that there could be some problem there?

BILL SHANNON: Oh, no I'm not nervous about it I'm just making the point that when some new level of involvement is mooted we just need to understand two things; the rules of, in terms of reference, the rules of engagement, if you like, what are the funding arrangements that are going to be used and what rules, for example, will be around local employment? That's going to be a really big issue in our region at this time.

ANNIE GUEST: Well this is something that was raised with me in Mission Beach and that was that local trades people were concerned they were going to miss out on positioning themselves for the reconstruction work because they were so busy in the short term looking after and repairing their own places.

BILL SHANNON: Well they won't miss out as far as council is concerned. We will definitely, as a council, definitely be employing locals. We're going to be asking the state to do the same thing. We're going to be asking the insurance companies to do the same thing.

ANNIE GUEST: Is there any chance that in some instances it could already be too late for that? I was told that one woman was told by her insurance company that it would be a builder from Melbourne or Sydney doing the work and she couldn't nominate a local.

BILL SHANNON: Down the track if I can find out the insurance company that's making these remarks I'll be only too pleased to go to them and point out that we'd rather them not do it that way because of warranties and also because it's not helping our local people.

ANNIE GUEST: Bill Shannon I'm already hearing that people are packing up and leaving. I was told that at least three people had decided to leave the Mission Beach area. Are you hearing similar things?

BILL SHANNON: Oh very definitely. There's no, there's no question after Cyclone Larry the population dropped and it's since recovered. And after this the population will drop. All the more reason to make sure there are systems in place to give these people employment.

ANNIE GUEST: How do you think residents are progressing, coming to terms with what they've been through and what may lie ahead?

BILL SHANNON: I think they're coping well but I do expect as we get into the second or third week there'll be more people that will respond by, with anger and more people will respond with feelings of desperation and then they will come through that and they will be, set about rebuilding.